


Between Armor and Skin

by lameassmadeupmaidenname



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, F/M, Pain Kink, Violent Sex, how much can you bleed and still function?, video game injury logic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:22:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23710717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lameassmadeupmaidenname/pseuds/lameassmadeupmaidenname
Summary: Aloy and Nil are interrupted during their duel-to-the-death by slightly more pressing matters. And after that, well, all that adrenaline has to be channeled somewhere.
Relationships: Aloy/Nil (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 105





	Between Armor and Skin

Aloy had made the mistake, when Nil suggested they fight to the death, of not recognizing how serious he was. A stupid mistake, really, when Nil was nothing if not serious. _Deadly_ serious.

Aloy's losing blood and she might be losing her mind on top of it.

She lands an arrow in Nil's shoulder, and he grins at her, his teeth and eyes glinting in the rain. He looks positively feral. Seconds later he's on top of her, as quick and undetectable as a Stalker in the night.

His knife glints above her, aiming for her heart, and she growls with effort, tightening her hands around his forearm, just able to hold him off. She manages to get her foot underneath him, and gathering all her strength, kicks him away from her, his knife slipping from his grasp in the process.

Aloy takes advantage, grabbing the knife and slamming it into Nil's hand, pinning it to the ground. The rain has made the ground soft and it won't hold him for long. Aloy grabs for her bow but it's just out of reach. As she scrambles for it, Nil frees himself and seizes her ankle, dragging her back towards him even as Aloy digs her fingers into the soft dirt, yelping as she feels a fingernail or two tear away. She kicks and feels her boot connect with Nil's face and a brief sense of triumph at his cry of pain.

She reaches her bow and whirls back to face him, nocking an arrow. Nil's smile has blood in it now as he slowly stands. Aloy draws her bow back, preparing to fire. An arrow hits Nil in the knee. He lets out an animalistic yell as he drops to the ground again. There's no triumph in this blow for Aloy – _it wasn't her arrow_.

She jumps to her feet, spinning to aim her bow into the shadows. The blood's pumping in her ears, so loud she can't feel the pain from any injuries Nil's dealt her.

“Nil, there's someone else here,” she says, strangely calm. She clicks on her Focus and can see them in the shadows.

She reaches out a hand and helps Nil to his feet, an unspoken agreement that they're on the same side again. He nocks an arrow of his own and stands with his back to Aloy's, ready for battle.

“I count five of them,” Aloy says. “Can you handle this fight?”

“Bandits?” he says, all too eager. “Oh, yes.”

Aloy knows adrenaline's rushing through his veins as much as it is hers. It's a strange relationship they have, but back-to-back fighting bandits feels like the way it should be.

Aloy fells the first with an arrow to the head.

When the second comes at her, slashing across her forearm, Nil's there in a flash to cut his throat.

And so it goes until the last bandit falls, leaving the two of them standing in a field of bodies and blood.

Nil walks a few paces away and picks his knife up from the ground.

Aloy takes stock of herself. There's a cut across her forearm from the bandits, and she can feel blood trickling down the side of her head from where one of Nil's arrows had just nicked her. Another bandit had slashed her abdomen, but she'd kept pressure on the wound and thought it would be okay. Her armor had spared her any other serious injuries.

She isn't sure Nil can say the same. His back is to her, on a knee, catching his breath. Aloy watches him carefully, wondering if she should just take her shot now.

She raises her bow, drawing her arrow back. She hesitates.

Nil takes off his helmet and shakes out his hair. Aloy hasn't seen him without his helmet before. He looks strangely vulnerable. She lowers her bow.

Nil looks back at her, wiping rain and blood out of his eyes. “You'd shoot a man with his back turned?”

“Obviously I wouldn't, since you're still alive,” she retorts.

Nil stands gingerly. “Put it down. Call it a truce.” He flexes his right hand – the one Aloy wounded. He's wrapped it in a scrap of cloth to stem the bleeding.

Aloy drops her weapon with a clatter. “How badly are you hurt?”

He grins wolfishly. “I don't mind the pain,” he says. “Gets the pulse rushing. _You_ know what I mean.” He approaches her slowly. Carefully.

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

“Don't I?” He takes her face in his hands, framing his palms along her jawline.

Aloy studies his face. She'd thought she might've broken his nose earlier, but she sees now she'd just missed and caught him on the cheek. His lip is split and a good-sized bruise is swelling just below his eye.

Aloy reaches up to his right hand and touches it where she'd driven his knife through. She digs her fingers into the wound and watches him wince, but he doesn't back away. She loosens her grip when the blood starts to seep through the cloth.

He's standing so close to her she can feel his breath as he exhales in relief. He nods slowly. “Yeah,” he says. “You get it.” Then he kisses her. _Viciously_.

Aloy hits him hard between the ribs with the heel of her hand and he stumbles back with a low _oof_.

He stares at her, wounded. “Come on. Nothing like the thrill of a fight.”

“Is that what this is?” she says, eyeing him cagily. “A fight?”

He catches her by the arms and yanks her close. “Doesn't have to be,” he says with a smile. “Unless you like it that way.” He hooks a foot around her ankle and sweeps her to the ground, landing on top of her.

Aloy lets out a groan of pain when she lands on already-bruised ribs. A glance to one side shows her she's within arm's reach of her spear. Good to know. Just in case.

Nil sees her look and and shakes his head. “I'm not going to kill you,” he says. “I'm not.”

“How do I know that?” Aloy says.

“You know I have honor,” Nil says. “I wouldn't trap or trick you. Not like this.” He runs his hand up along her waist.

“You were trying to kill me half an hour ago.”

“Well.” Nil cocks his head like she's made an interesting point about the weather. “Minds change.”

He kisses her again, and this time Aloy kisses him back. She'd hate to admit Nil is right about anything, but nothing is like the thrill of the fight. She could ride that adrenaline high for hours.

Not that she enjoys killing _humans_.

Nil's tongue is in her mouth, one of his hands pinning her arms above her head, and _how_ is he so strong after what they've just been through? He tastes like blood and sweat and rain.

Nil's free hand, his injured hand, is at her chest, pulling at the laces on her tunic. He taps on her chest, and pulls back just enough to murmur, “Undo that for me.” He raises his bloody hand. “You've rendered me incapable of doing it myself.” He lifts an eyebrow. “I hope I regain the use of my fingers.”

Maybe he means it lasciviously, maybe he's just worried about being able to shoot his bow – Aloy doesn't ask for clarification, just opens her tunic and lets him lift it over her head.

He kisses her lips again, then her neck, then moves his mouth to her breasts, holding her hips down with his hands as she tries to move. Aloy can't help the moan that escapes her mouth and Nil hums eagerly in response.

Aloy tugs at his armor, trying to remove it. As she does so, Nil lets out a growl of pain and curls away from her like a wounded animal, clutching at his left shoulder, where a broken arrow is still stuck, just under his collarbone.

It's one of hers. Nil just barely flinches as she touches it.

“Leave it,” he says. “I'll live to remove it later.”

He's right. He'll just bleed more if she takes it out now. “Sorry,” Aloy says.

“No, you're not,” he says, and looks at her like _she's_ the strange one. He casts aside his armor, leaving him naked from the waist up, and kisses her again, hard and deep, one hand squeezing her breast so hard it's just on the edge of _too_ painful, the other hand reaching between her legs, rubbing her over her leggings.

Aloy bites his lips, reopening the cut she left there earlier, and he snarls and presses his body against hers, pinning her to the ground, and she snakes her hand into his hair where the rain has slicked it flat to his neck. Nil lights something in her on fire – has since Devil's Thirst – and in a rational state of mind it would frighten her, but she's not in a rational state of mind.

He's tugged her leggings down around her knees, and she reaches to free his erection from his trousers. He groans as she touches him.

“Girl, your hands,” he says softly. “I knew they were good with a bow, but this – ” he arches against her, “ – is almost better.”

_Almost_. She twists one hand along his length, liking his deep, throaty growl as she does so. He leans in and kisses her neck, nipping lightly at her pulse. Aloy can feel her body shaking from – adrenaline? Blood loss? Arousal? Could be any or all of the above.

She slides her hand up Nil's chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat under his ribs. Her hand runs into the broken arrow buried in his shoulder, and he flinches but doesn't stop kissing her neck, his fingers working between her legs. Aloy, out of a sort of perverse curiosity, grasps the arrow shaft and twists.

Nil jerks away from her with an involuntary yelp of _“don't – ”_

He looks at her, startled, and Aloy registers that sense of triumph she got in battle – the thrill of knowing she _hurt_ him. Then he shoves her backwards, her head hitting the ground so hard she sees stars, and then he's inside her.

“You're vicious, girl,” he says, thrusting his hips into hers. “Can't deny it now. I can see in your eyes how you're enjoying this – _all of it_.”

Aloy reaches up to pull him in to kiss him again – if she keeps kissing him she won't have to answer. He grasps her thigh and pushes into her deeper, not gently, making her gasp.

Nil moves his hand between their bodies, his thumb finding her clit, and pressing hard. She starts to cry out as he fucks her harder, his thumb circling her clit now – and finds herself muzzled by Nil's hand.

“Shh, shh, shh,” he soothes. “Come quietly now.”

Aloy can feel it building inside her and he's making it so easy to lose herself. Nil's mouth is on her neck again; she can feel his teeth, and when he bites her – hard – her orgasm hits her. Nil's hand tightens on her mouth and he laughs against her neck, fucking her through the waves of pleasure.

“By the Sun,” he murmurs, “you feel good.”

What she feels is dizzy and overwhelmed. He's still fucking her, his thrusts deeper and faster now and she can hardly keep up – but it's not long before he stills, coming inside of her with a moan as his head drops to her chest. He lies there for a moment, mouthing at her breasts, and she drags her fingers through his hair, feeling her head float back down from the clouds.

She blinks, the world coming back into focus. The rain has stopped and the sun is rising red over the horizon.

Nil pulls out of her, rolling onto his back. He groans again, in pain this time, grabbing at his left shoulder.

Aloy fuzzily reaches to the back of her head where she'd hit the ground. No blood. A good sign.

She stands shakily, pulling her leggings and tunic back on, and reaches for her bag where she keeps her medicine. “Nil,” she says, intending now to help him with his wounds, if he'll let her. She turns to find him still on his back, chest heaving.

She kneels next to him. “Are you all right?”

He grins painfully at her. “I will be,” he says. “And if I'm not, at least I'll know it was you who did me in, so I can be proud of that. Though to be honest, I thought I could take you.”

Aloy, before he can react, rips the broken arrow out of his shoulder and lets him yell.

“We were interrupted,” she says. “Who knows how our fight would have ended.” She hands him a piece of cloth to wrap his shoulder with.

He props himself up on one elbow. “You were winning.” He jerks his head towards the bodies of the bandits who'd attacked them in the night. “They came from the west. What do you say? We could head that direction and see what we can find.”

“The promise of more bandits give you a new lease on life?” Aloy says. “No more death wish?”

“I don't have a death wish,” he says. “You're just a worthy adversary.”

Aloy shakes her head. “You'll have to find someone new, then. I'm not going with you to hunt bandits.”

“Who are you hiding this part of you from? Yourself or someone else?” Nil studies her carefully. “Someone in Meridian? The Sun-King? I heard you saved his life.”

Aloy looks away. “No.”

“No?” His silvery eyes glimmer. “So there is _someone_?”

“I didn't say that, Nil,” she says firmly. “I'm not hiding anything from anyone.”

He smiles. “Sure you're not. Just remember, _I_ know you enjoyed it. _You_ know you enjoyed it. And _they_ know you enjoyed it.” He gestures to the bodies surrounding them. “But as I've said before, your secret can stay between all of us.”

Nil stands carefully and limps over to his bow and helmet.

“You'll head west, then?” Aloy says.

“Yes,” he replies. “If you ever head that direction, I'm sure you'll find me. In the meantime, I'll be licking my wounds and learning to shoot left-handed. I'll wear your scars proudly. I hope you'll do the same.”

Aloy cringes, but she knows Nil means it sincerely, and tries to take it as a compliment. “Sure, Nil. I will.” As he turns away, Aloy can't stop herself from calling after him, “Was it better than a fight?”

Nil turns back to her, smiling. “Almost.”

The word hits her like a fire. _Almost_. She swallows the urge to make it better than _almost_ and let him go _._

“I'll see you again, Aloy,” he says.

Aloy shrugs. Forced nonchalance. “If it can't be helped.”

And then he's gone.

Aloy lets her legs give out beneath her, collapsing on their battlefield. She needs to rest. As her eyes flutter shut, she knows she'll be dreaming of the place where the arrowhead passes between armor and skin.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! If you wanna chat with me, you can find me on Tumblr [here](http://emmaswanned.tumblr.com)! I would love to talk HZD with someone! Hope you're all safe and healthy during this time!


End file.
